| Name of Complainant | |
| Date of Complaint | April 26, 2019 |
| Name(s) of companies complained against | tatasky |
| Category of complaint | Entertainment |
| Permanent link of complaint | Right click to copy link |
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In June 2018, I came to Lodha NCP as a new resident. I had an earlier TataSky connection, which I had transferred from Hyderabad. When I contacted the Tatasky contact from Lodha, I was told I could not reconnect my old box as individual dishes were not allowed as it “spoilt the look of the facade”. I was given a new box under a common connection. I paid Rs. 6,000 as an annual fee. I had to lose out on 2 month’s subscription fees that were prepaid on my earlier TataSky connection.
Soon I found that I could not make any changes to the plan(like add new channels, or buy Showcase) I always had to transfer money to the Tatasky contact, then he would activate the Showcase movie. So I asked him to give me the subscriber Id so I could do this myself. I was able to do this successfully.
In March, suddenly most of my channels disappeared. I contacted the Tatasky local guy and he said it was because of government rules. I told him TRAI has only said to choose your own packages, and I asked him to restore my channels. He did not do it, so I approached the consumer desk directly and changed my package. However, on 12 April, my account was suspended due to low balance, exactly 2 months before my annual subscription was supposed to expire. The Tatasky contact from Lodha told me he couldn’t do anything but return my 2 months money and take back the box. I asked him if he could reconnect my old box, and he said yes, but after that he disappeared for 2 to 3 weeks. In the meantime, I tried to get things fixed through the Tatasky helpdesk, who informed me that my subscription was linked to 3 secondary boxes due to which my monthly package would cost me Rs 1800. He asked if I wanted to cancel the other 3, and I said yes. Now this box was in the name of some Mahesh, with a completely different address. I couldn’t change those details as that would require the signature of the old account holder. So I was left with no option but to call the Lodha contact again. This man found out that I had suspended the other 3 secondary connections and started yelling at me, blaming me for putting him at a loss.
I went to the Lodha office to speak to someone about this, and was told that some Anil would contact me. Nothing happened. Then my wife went last week and was told some Akshay would call me. Again nothing. Yesterday i visited the office, and was given the number of a “senior person Ram” from Tatasky. I have been calling him all day, and he hasn’t responded. And all this time, we have no cable.
This is clearly an unfair practice to provide residents only with one option of cable. Basically it allows this vendor to dictate terms, and is a monopolistic way of running things. Since NCP does not allow any other satellite TV vendor in the premises, we have no other options. Which makes it easy for this vendor to do whatever they like.
My rights to the freedom of choice are being hampered here, and I have a good case to complain to the TRAI, or the consumer forum.
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